Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Today I braved the border crossing and the beasts of upstate New York traffic to take my oral exams. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the university, I found out that one of my professors is very sick. He is in his late 60s anyway and was in bad shape yesterday: slurring his words, with a bloody nose, and just looking terrible. They sent him home then, but he wanted to come in today, good man that he is. I first heard about all of this today, incidentally. Anyway, he called to say that he would be coming in, but he sounded so terrible on the phone that we told him to stay home. We could also hear his wife yelling at him in the background to stay home.

So, the plan was for me to take the orals today, pass them, and then go up for a stress-free week at the cottage. Now, I have to wait another week to take the orals. But, you know what? Pas de problème! I'm going to blow off the orals for a week and go to the cottage. The hell with worrying about these things. This is the last exam that I'll ever have to take and I've been preparing for it over the last year. I need to rest, or I'm going to sound like my professsor did on the phone today!

I should probably also note that most of his symptoms sound like a combination of being in his 60s and having a very bad cold. There was a lot of sneezing and sniffling involved. Otherwise, some of this might sound callous.

Although, I guess not as callous as if I had said, "This is the worst September 11th ever!".